★★★★★
Wine tasting is already a fairly optimistic activity. You sit down, someone pours you a splash of something expensive-looking. Suddenly everyone in the room starts pretending they know what “mouthfeel” means. We swirl, we sniff, we nod thoughtfully. We say things like “stone fruit” and “minerality” despite mostly thinking, “Yes, I would happily have more of that.”
Throw a couple of comedians into that equation and things get very loosey-goosey very quickly. Hosted by Sweeney Preston and Ethan Cavanagh, with a genuine wine aficionado from Innocent Bystander bravely trying to keep the wheels somewhere near the road, In Pour Taste takes the humble wine tasting and gives it a very necessary shake.
Over the afternoon, we worked our way through a Prosecco, Pinot Gris, Rosé, Pinot Noir and a Watermelon Spritz. Which is a nice way of saying the audience got more confident with every pour.
What makes the show land so well is that it never treats wine like some sacred art form guarded by people in linen shirts who use the word “terroir” unprompted. Don’t know what a tannin is? Perfect, you’ll be fine.
Preston and Cavanagh strip the whole thing of its usual awkwardness and turn it into something genuinely inviting. You can learn a little, laugh a lot, and leave knowing that your most sophisticated tasting note might be, “I’d have another one of those.”
The Wynnum Fringe crowd, it must be said, was well and truly up to the task. The Augathella Spiegeltent was filled with an audience more than ready to settle in for an afternoon of finely blended sophistication and absolute nonsense. In fact, the audience participation was next level.
This is not a show where the crowd occasionally gets asked a polite question before the performers return safely to the script. The crowd is very much part of the machinery, sometimes dangerously so.
What unfolded felt genuinely impossible to plan. What are the chances that Preston would single out a former wine distributor who had worked with luxury brands like Bollinger? Or that almost every female audience member brought into the chaos would either be wearing leopard print or have a name beginning with “L”? You couldn’t script it, and thankfully, they didn’t need to.
Preston and Cavanagh are quick enough, relaxed enough and cheeky enough to know exactly when to chase a moment and when to let the room do the work for them.
Preston has the kind of stage presence that makes mischief feel inevitable. There’s a looseness to him that keeps the room beautifully on edge. It’s as if at any moment he might discover an entirely new joke hiding under someone’s seat.
Cavanagh, meanwhile, balances the energy with a wonderfully dry, sharp charm. Together, they have that lovely double-act rhythm where neither performer seems to be fighting for control. Even when the whole room appears to be gently sliding off the rails.
The Innocent Bystander partnership is also smartly handled. The wines are not just decorative props for the comedy. They give the show structure, pace and, let’s be real, a fairly persuasive reason for the audience to become more vocal as the hour goes on. That, and to stick around and support the Fringe afterwards.
By the time the Watermelon Spritz arrived, the room had moved away from “formal tasting,” leaning more towards “family Christmas after someone found the good esky.” Which I mean as the highest compliment.
By far, this was one of the most outrageously fun afternoons I’ve had in a long time. Who knew wine and comedy worked just as well, if not better, than wine and cheese? There’s something delightfully disarming about laughing while learning just enough to sound impressive later, but not so much that you accidentally become unbearable at dinner parties.
The show may be called In Pour Taste. But I left the Augathella Spiegeltent with a crisp taste on the back of my palate and a very real soft spot for Sweeney and Ethan. It’s silly, smart, brilliantly social and dangerously easy to enjoy. Like any good bottle shared among friends, it goes down far too easily and leaves you wishing there was just a little bit more.
In Pour Taste ran on 3 and 4 July as part of Wynnum Fringe. Augathella Spiegeltent, 166 Bay Terrace, Wynnum QLD 4178.
The season has now ended.
Website: https://wynnumfringe.com/in-pour-taste/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/wynnumfringe/ and https://www.instagram.com/inpourtaste.show/
Images supplied.
Watch the trailer here:
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